800.M30, Ultima Segmentum, Olympia.
The city-state of Lochos was massive. It was not built upon the mountain peak; instead, it was set into the peak itself.
Olympia's largest iron-bearing mountain range, the "Glaucus Ridge," was located here, and the city of Lochos was "embedded" right into it. It did not resemble a city so much as a giant, functioning machine magnified a million times.
Countless regular geometric shapes were forged: square fortresses, cylindrical communication towers, pyramidal energy hubs, and a web of elevated rails and pipelines. They stacked and interlocked along the mountain's contours. Set against the grey-white giant rock, they presented a sense of cold, magnificent order.
Under the sunlight, the main body of the city did not reflect a metallic luster. Instead, it was an interlocking pattern of matte dark grey and the dark red of the ore veins, looking like cooled, iron-rich lava.
The architecture of Lochos had no useless decorations. Extreme structural logic and engineering precision made it a sacred city of iron and steel that perfectly conformed to logic and aesthetics.
The streets were not winding paths either. They were a network of sky bridges and tunnels intersecting at precise angles, calculated based on mountain terrain and transport efficiency. The main roads were wide ramps allowing heavy transport vehicles to drive side-by-side. The road surface was an anti-slip metal grid, and the rushing cooling pipelines and data fiber cables were visible underneath.
The iron walls were pieced together from alloy composite plates mined from the iron veins. Dark rivets and stiffeners reinforced the joints. Etched onto the walls were not decorative drawings, but giant structural stress diagrams of the surrounding area, pipeline distribution maps, or classic "masterpieces" by certain engineers. These drawings served as a public knowledge base, a part of the Lochosian "architectural language."
Lochos was never silent. There was the boom of forging hammers treated with vibration dampening, the steady airflow sound of the ventilation systems, and the electromagnetic hum of rail vehicles.
The air was thick with the scent of ozone, hot metal, high-grade lubricants, and the filtered, icy rock atmosphere extracted from deep within the mountains.
Located at the highest level of the city was the "Design Dome." This was where the Iron Council and high-ranking engineers resided. They assisted the Lord of Iron in building the entire planet of Olympia.
They were the ruling class, possessing the most profound knowledge of mathematics, engineering, and military strategy. Their attire consisted of simple, dark uniforms, and they wore geometric badges and slide rule accessories symbolizing their professional rank. Their authority came from verifiable engineering achievements and logical deduction capabilities. The Lord of Iron did not believe in bloodlines; he recognized only ability.
Below the dome was the backbone of the city, living in well-equipped, efficiency-first hive-style unit apartments.
Their lives revolved around their respective professional workshops, maintenance areas, and continuous education centers. Lochos possessed the most complete vocational training and skill certification system on all of Olympia. A craftsman's social status was directly linked to his technical rating. The public areas were filled with shared workbenches and 3D printers.
And at the very bottom lived the largest population, including soldiers, basic operators, and apprentice workers. Their lives were subject to strict discipline, but they also enjoyed promotion channels and basic guarantees based on their contributions. Their residences were centralized, barrack-style dormitories—simple, sturdy, and easy to manage.
Beyond these, there were some clerical jobs. On Lochos and Olympia, they were not valued and were even somewhat marginalized. These were people who developed interests in philosophy, history, art, and even non-practical sciences outside of pure engineering logic.
Perturabo knew that they were the key seeds for "softening the edges" of the future city and infusing it with a humanistic spirit.
Talking about hope and peace in Warhammer was a bit too much of a given. Perturabo knew it was a bit too ridiculously naive, but he was still willing to believe it, even though he had no intention of working himself to death for the Emperor in the future.
At the deeper core level, the Iron Keep and the Iron Forge were located here. The infrastructure that allowed the city of Lochos to operate steadily was based here.
The Iron Keep was not a luxurious palace, but an extremely reinforced, function-aggregated command and R&D center. It was located at the best defensive and viewing position on the mountainside, shaped like a giant, tilted, dark metal cube embedded in the mountain. Inside was a maze of tactical deduction rooms, holographic star map halls, giant computer arrays, and private design workshops.
Like the internal structure of a giant machine, all corridors, halls, and rooms exposed structural frames, pipelines, and transmission devices. The ceilings were crisscrossed with I-beams and ventilation ducts, and the walls were embedded with transparent data cable conduits in which pulsating optical signals flowed.
The strategic command level was located at the geometric center, with the walls being full screens of real-time star maps and production data. The ordnance production level was a factory integrated with the Iron Keep. The assembly lines ran directly through the walls, and robotic arms slid on the rails.
There was also the Logic Sanctuary, an archive storing all the engineering blueprints, tactical deductions, and philosophical works of Perturabo and the Dome, composed of an endless matrix of scroll cabinets managed by automated mechanical arms.
The Iron Forge, the power and industrial core of the city, was converted from a huge natural cave in the belly of the mountain. Standing here was Olympia's most advanced geothermal-plasma composite energy well, along with the prototype factories and materials laboratories built around it.
The light of the forge was not the orange-red of fire, but the eerie blue and incandescence of plasma, illuminating the entire cave like a mechanical divine realm. This was the source of Lochos's technology and the birthplace of Perturabo's countless designs.
What made Perturabo proudest of the entire city of Lochos was the ubiquitous weaponized defense system he had built by doing his best, racking his brains, and overclocking his enhanced neural cables. It fused aggressive logic into defensive forms.
Lochos's defense was not a passive shield, but an active, outward-extending, and aggressive domain.
Perturabo's idea was that since it was the ultimate defense, it should completely eliminate the enemy physically and psychologically before their attack intention entered the executable stage.
To complete the perfect ideal defense system in his mind, Perturabo made a decision that went against the Emperor's wishes. He utilized the Abominable Intelligence he was born knowing to interface with his defense system in all aspects.
First was the peripheral area.
Perturabo set up ground-listening and vibration-sensing arrays. The precise sensor network buried deep underground could distinguish the vibration frequencies of heavy vehicles, infantry clusters, and even tunnel excavations. The margin of error did not exceed 0.5m, and the data was fed into the central tactical logic engine in real time.
An automated patrol sentry system was established. Its main members were not soldiers, but low-profile, invisible, heavily camouflaged self-propelled sensor platforms and micro-attack drone nests. They lurked silently, forming a living surveillance net. Any unidentified vital signs or energy signals would trigger a local alert and share the information with the fire units.
The land was planned into a standard grid, with each square being a preset modular weapon platform deployment point. Upon warning, the ground square would open, and the lifting platform could deliver the prestored weapon module to the ground within 90 seconds.
Rapid-fire laser turrets, missile silos, and electromagnetic railgun arrays were used. The firepower coverage area was precisely calculated to ensure no dead zones overlapped, and it could form a crossfire net.
For this purpose, Perturabo specially built matching heavy unmanned self-propelled artillery Abominable Intelligences. On normal days, they hid in the mountain tunnels, painted in environment-adaptive camouflage, appearing just like rocks when silent.
Once war broke out, they would not charge blindly. Instead, based on the predictions of the logic engine, they would maneuver along the optimal calculated path to the best sniping positions to carry out the first round of precise surgical strikes on high-value enemy targets.
And the entire city of Lochos had also been forged into a giant war machine by Perturabo.
The surface of the city walls was covered with regular hexagonal armor plates. Each piece could instantly pop out, be replaced, or retract backward when hit, revealing the hive-like launch tubes below.
Point-defense melta autocannons, melta lances, high-explosive grenades, and so on were configured therein. The weapons were not fixed; instead, they were rapidly deployed on tracks inside the walls by mechanical arms and allocated to the best firing ports according to the threat type.
Retractable multi-layered firepower platforms extending from the top of the city walls and higher-level buildings formed a downward three-dimensional firepower net. Like a steel waterfall, it poured down a rhythmically distinct barrage of destruction coordinated by computers, specifically targeting wall-climbing or aerial units.
There was also an extremely rigorous anti-aircraft network system. It was dedicated to letting the logic engine track every incoming missile or aircraft through the reasonable use of vast radar and optical arrays, instantly calculating its trajectory, speed, and possible evasion patterns, and simulating tens of thousands of future paths.
This was the defense system Perturabo had now built based on the resources on Olympia. There were quite a few loopholes, but it was already the limit of what he could currently do.
Perturabo had also made up his mind. After returning to the Imperium in the future, he would claw some technology from the hands of the Emperor and the Adeptus Mechanicus to upgrade this defense system again with the Iron Council of the Dome. He strove to build a defense system that would give even Rogal Dorn a run for his money.
Of course, that was a prediction under ideal circumstances. If the Emperor arrived and saw the Iron Circle battle-automata all over the place in Lochos and the use of the Abominable Intelligence logic engine, and did not obliterate him on the spot, then Perturabo would without hesitation immediately take over the defense systems of Holy Terra and the Solar Segmentum. From then on, he would peacefully be a construction ox.
As for the Great Crusade, whoever wanted to go could go. As for this broken Imperium, whoever wanted to save it could save it. Anyway, Perturabo had no interest in accompanying the Emperor and the rest of the Primarchs to stage some family ethics drama, nor was he interested in saving this human empire that was rotten to the core.
Chaos was so strong. How could he, such a small Primarch, fight them head-on? Even the Warhammer Gary Stu, the Emperor, who could manually rub stars like small balls, was beaten into a paraplegic state in the future. With his small arms and legs fighting against them, he would be turned into meat paste with one slap. What the hell was there to fight?
In case the Emperor thought about forcibly dragging him to the Great Crusade to be a hard-working pure beast of burden, Perturabo had also thought it through. After getting enough benefits, he would run away immediately.
The galaxy was so big; was he afraid of not having a place to fit in? At worst, he would just run out of the Milky Way galaxy, and it wouldn't be such a coincidence that he would run into the Necrons and Tyranids.
In short, Perturabo, who was a construction worker in his previous life, now only wanted to slack off, focus on his scientific research, and manage his legion.
They were all a group of good lads. It just so happened that the original body's personality and brain were driven out of his mind by the Great Maelstrom above his head. Coupled with the Emperor not treating him like a human being, it finally resulted in so many absurd operations.
Anyway, Perturabo was not planning to do anything abstract. It didn't matter whether he connected with the Emperor and his brothers or not. In short, it was absolutely impossible to ignore his sons.
Otherwise, with such high adaptability, it would be miserable to be dragged to the front line to be used as cannon fodder. Mainly, their personalities and thinking were still so rigid and old-fashioned. If they didn't change a bit and he didn't participate in the Great Crusade later, he was afraid that a major battle would cost tens of thousands of them.
Perturabo could not tolerate such a thing happening. His position should be to properly act as a construction ox. What kind of war should he engage in? Wouldn't it be nice to properly lay gray concrete and do construction? Wouldn't it be great to do some art and sculpture?
Being single-minded about honor, honor, and honor—the people are already dead, so what the hell is the point of honor!
In short, Perturabo would absolutely not go on the Great Crusade. Even if he were beaten to death, he wouldn't go.
He had also planned out his future goals by now. When the time came, the legion and the expeditionary fleet would fight together to capture the star sectors around Olympia. Perturabo wanted to structure these places into large three-dimensional defense systems. When the expedition ended, he would hide inside and be his own local tyrant.
This was his ideal. Anyway, he didn't want to be PUA'd by the Emperor and Horus, nor did he want to be dragged hard to save humanity or something. He was not that great; not every Primarch was Roboute Guilliman.
What Perturabo could do was absolutely not rebel. If they wanted him to contribute, maybe in the next life. Anyway, in this life, he was determined to slack off!
Perturabo, who had just finished studying the 88th improvement of the high-cannon firing platform, returned to his palace above the dome. This was the palace he had built for his own daily life, where he usually lived with his elder sister, Calliphone.
As for Dammekos and those brothers, except for Andros, who had always persisted in his ideals and wandered around various small sculpture halls, coming over to reunite with his sister and him from time to time, the rest had been given a random job in the lower layer by him, and that was that.
A group of unqualified political creatures playing that dark calculating game of the ancient Terra Greek court, calculating here and there all day long with severely ill brains—Perturabo didn't even have the interest to take another look at them.
If it weren't for his sister pleading and dissuading him, Perturabo was not planning to give a way out to this group of idiots who, from the very beginning, thought about utilizing him to conquer Olympia and then using schemes to plot against him to seize the fruits of victory.
The palace was not a single building, but a giant complex with layers of nesting and self-similar fractals. The overall structure was a polygonal star fortress combining concentric circles and radiating axes, looking like a mixture of an ultra-large-scale Roman military camp and a futuristic fortress.
All outer walls, towers, and passages strictly followed the arrangement of the golden ratio and prime number sequences. Not an inch of curve was "random."
The iron walls were cold grey composite armor plates, with the surface treated to be matte to avoid meaningless reflections. The joints were deep black reinforced frames. The size of each plate was completely identical, with the error margin being lower than the micrometer level.
The corridors and walkways were filled with Renaissance-style art paintings from the ancient Terra period and golden-ratio sculptures carved by Perturabo and Andros themselves.
Beyond this, there were also some areas with walls covered in huge mathematical formulas, engineering drawings, and etched inscriptions of logical theorems, mechanically carved onto the wall surface in Olympian font.
If he learned High Gothic in the future, Perturabo would also consider replacing the Olympian language on it. After all, when returning to the Imperium at that time, High Gothic would certainly be used to popularize education.
The city walls presented multi-layered inclined armor belts, with automatically deployable turrets, missile arrays, and energy shield generators hidden between each layer. The firing fields of all fire points were precisely calculated to achieve full-domain coverage with no dead zones.
The highest point of the palace was not a spire, but a giant orbital computing array, a precise instrument composed of thousands of black metal masts, with cold blue data stream lights flashing at the top.
Gantry cranes and rail conveyor systems resembling scaffolding stood towering around, ceaselessly hoisting materials and equipment. This building was essentially a "continuously operating machine."
Although he would always be complained to for a couple of sentences by his sister, Calliphone, in daily life, Perturabo's innate bone-deep pragmatic utilization of mechanical beauty always prompted him to have some special persistence in these aspects.
Moreover, there was even a small opera house inside. Perturabo had specifically made some Iron Men to perform for him and his sister. Although this art style was a bit bizarre, Calliphone still accepted it.
After all, inside this dome, there was really nothing to use for entertainment. The middle and lower layers were also extremely silent. Rational and practical thinking was carried through to the end by Perturabo. Although he was going to slack off, it didn't mean that he was just lying flat; he just didn't like to move, that was all.
Regarding some things, you might not need them, but you couldn't be without them. Having a sword and not using it is one thing; not having a sword available is another.
Only when you have sufficient strength do you have the qualification to slack off, let alone that this was still Warhammer!
A Primarch at the combat power level actually couldn't affect the direction of some medium and large-scale wars. This was the main reason why Perturabo dared to rest assured and slack off.
Without strength of Old Malcador's level, it was very difficult to change some general trends.
Primarchs were naturally very strong, and there were also many things they could change. To say nothing else, just in that situation of 42K, Guilliman could stiffly bring the Imperium back to life. It could only be said that there were still many things a Primarch could do; otherwise, why would the Chaos Chaos Gods all want a Primarch?
In short, managing his own forces at ease and not messing around with other random things—later he would look for a few Blackstone Fortresses, and Chaos wouldn't even have the chance to corrupt him. As long as it could stabilize, that would be the greatest help to the Imperium.
Learn how to operate and manage, and the rest is just direct F2A! Perturabo did not believe that Chaos and the traitors could contend against the Imperium in terms of logistics in the material universe.
As for now, the 5m tall Perturabo was wearing a white robe, with the neural cables on his head taken off, accompanying his sister in handling some government affairs regarding Olympia.
Olympia had long been conquered by Perturabo. Lochos was just the largest city-state. Now the entirety of Olympia had already turned into something similar to those hive worlds of the Imperium. It was just that Olympia was managed very well, and Olympia was also much better than a hive world.
At least the pollution problem had been completely solved by Perturabo. Even for the rapidly exploding population problem, Perturabo had built iron fortresses in the vast majority of livable areas of Olympia.
They had even started establishing ring belts at the star ring area of Olympia. What the current Olympia truly lacked was just some rare materials. Although Perturabo could build spaceships, they couldn't sail too far, and they didn't have warp engines yet.
However, everything would be fine after returning to the Imperium. When the time came, Perturabo would start large-scale development and construction of the star systems and star sectors around Olympia, and also build his legion well.
When the time comes, he must definitely get a few Titans to put in the palace and the Iron Keep for collection!
Perturabo, lying on a lounge chair after processing the government affairs, secretly made up his mind.
"Abo, what are you thinking about again? Are you going to do those researches again?"
Calliphone , leaning in her younger brother's arms, obviously felt that he was thinking about some unrestrained things again.
Calliphone felt proud of this younger brother's whimsical designs, but was also a bit unhappy about him not being able to accompany her for a bit longer. Because she knew that as soon as he had an idea, he wanted to go experiment, and couldn't idle around at all. Whenever he heard about research and design, those emerald blue eyes could always reflect a different kind of light.
He had actually even cut off his pitch-black, straight, and extremely good-feeling long hair!
Although it was still very good-looking, a Primarch's charm was no joke. Which normal person seeing a Primarch and the Emperor wouldn't kowtow and bow in worship? It could only be said that actually, the starts for most Primarchs were a bit too hellish.
Using her hand to stroke the few marks appearing on Perturabo's forehead because of the neural cables, a few traces of heartache appeared on Calliphone's face. Even though Perturabo didn't feel that this was anything, this was her younger brother!
"No, just thought of some things, some things a long time later."
Feeling his sister's small hand stroking on his forehead, Perturabo turned his head slightly toward his sister's side to make it more convenient for her.
Perhaps because of awakening some essences, Perturabo's ability and psychic power were both a bit stronger than the original body's, and his body size had even skyrocketed to a height of 6m.
At this moment, if it weren't for stiffly pressing his body down to a height of over two meters using psychic power, he was afraid that his sister on him would be just like a small rag doll.
"Then you accompany me for a bit longer today. Leave the government affairs to the logic engine. You haven't accompanied me to stroll above the dome for a long time."
Calliphone's tone carried some coquettishness. Ever since Perturabo said something about wanting to build Olympia better, he was doing experiments over at the Iron Keep all day long.
Once he did it, it was for several months. Every time she went over, he had a high-spirited research-maniac look, as if he never felt tired. Calliphone didn't understand technology, but she saw the changes of Olympia in her eyes.
She knew that everything Perturabo did was very formidable. Since she couldn't help with anything, she also had to help process some things within her capacity. Fortunately, her ability in government affairs was not bad, and there was also the subsequent verification of the logic engine. The whole of Olympia was now having smooth governance and was thriving.
Calliphone knew that Perturabo liked how it was now very much, and it would be enough for her to do well now and not cause trouble for him.
"Okay, anyway, it's all idle time recently. Everything goes according to your wishes."
Perturabo responded softly.
To Calliphone, he was always responsive to every plea. After all, his sister was one of the few people willing to consider things for him back then, and had been up until now.
"Hmph, you say so every time. When the time comes, you'll think of something again and then cast me aside to go do research again. Andros is also like this, thinking about sculpture and art all day long, running here and there every day. Every time he comes, he just eats a meal and then leaves again, with endless things to do every day."
"You too, can't you properly accompany me for a few days?"
While speaking, Calliphone kept drawing circles on Perturabo's chest with her finger, and finally turned it into a fist and tapped lightly, burying her head in front of his chest.
"This time I won't. There is nothing that can be improved anymore on Olympia. The limitation of materials is a bit large, and those future research periods will all be very long; achievements can't be produced in a short time."
"I also definitely won't stay in the Iron Keep every day. Combining work and rest is the best; when the time comes, I'll accompany you every day."
After Perturabo finished speaking with a smile, his powerful arms gently embraced his sister's body, and Calliphone's body rubbed against him again in his arms.
"Then it's a deal. You're not allowed to lie to me this time."
"Okay."